324 Scarcity and Surfeit
into both the regional and global economy, especially through the expan-
sion of export-oriented plantation agricult~re.~ The state system favoured
by the European colonialists and their Ethiopian counterpart enabled them
to tax, conscript a labour force and to exploit the resources lying in areas
inhabited by Somali clans. Many scholars argue that since Somalis were
predominately a pastoral society they were less able to adapt to a central
state ~ystem.~
Colonialism also introduced agrarian and urban lifestyles to the Somali
people that were substantially different from their traditional nomadic pas-
toral background. Although historically agricultural commodities from
Ethiopia and Somalia were exported from Somali port^,'^ Somalia was
integrated into the regional and global economy through the development of
an irrigated plantation economy based initially on cotton and later on
bananas in the Lower Shabelle and Lower Jubba areas.
The other significant change that colonialism brought to Somalia was the
rapid growth of urban centres such as Mogadishu in the south and Hargeisa
in the north. Mogadishu, Hargeisa, Kismayu and Baidoa served as centres of
political life for politicians and business people who had an interest in poli-
tics to safeguard their businesses and wealth. These towns provided oppor-
tunities to generate and accumulate wealth. They also altered the mandate of
leadership from regulating kin relationships, and entitlements to resources
such as water, pasture and the like to regulating access to the political, eco-
nomic and social benefits of the state."
Somalia has experienced three distinct political periods during its four
decades of independence. The first was the period of multiparty democracy
and civilian rule from 1960-1969. On 1 July 1960, Somalia was granted inde-
pendence and merged with the former British Protectorate by agreement with
the UN Trusteeship Council. The first Somali president, Aden Abdulle
Oman, 'Aden Adde', was elected during this period. His former prime min-
ister, Abdirashid Ali Sharma'arke, defeated him in 1967. lbo years later
President Ahdirashid was assassinated by one of his bodyguards. This peri-
od was one that some Somalis recall as a golden period, while others char-
acterise it as a time of corrosive and paralysing clannism.
The second period was a time of militarisation and scientific socialism.
From 1969-1990 Somalia was led by President Mohammed Siad Barre who
attained power through a bloodless coup on 21 October 1969. This period of
military rule can also he divided into several distinct periods. The first was
the initial period of military rule and scientific socialism in the early 1970%
remembered by many Somalis as a time of real social and developmental
progress and as evidence that clannism could be overcome by mobilising
nationalist sentiments. The scientific socialism ideology was based on a
combination of ideas borrowed from the Islamic Sharia law, the Somali cus-
tomary law and communism. This was followed by a period of militarisation